Paul Stancliffe: Look to the skies!
For anyone with a love of the great outdoors, autumn is a time of wonder. But if your interest lies with birds, it’s arguably the best time of the year to go out in search of them - and this year promises to be a good one.
Relatively speaking, this summer has been much better than those of recent years. And it wasn’t just Britons enjoying the improved weather, but large numbers of our breeding birds too, so there might be more of them around for us to see.
Over the next couple of months, large feeding flocks of tits will be obvious: each bird constantly calling to another as the flock works along a hedgerow or through gardens in search of grubs, seeds and invertebrates. It’s always worth looking at these flocks of mainly Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, as they are almost always joined by other, often more interesting species. Treecreepers, Nuthatches, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Goldcrests can be seen and, as the autumn progresses, rarities from Scandinavia and Siberia are always a possibility.
There’s another reason experienced birdwatchers check out flocks of tits at this time: for the ‘sprites’. This is what Pallas’s and Yellow-browed Warblers are fondly known as, and these small jewels - not much bigger than a Goldcrest - ceaselessly dash around the foliage in brilliant flasheds of yellow, habitually hovering while searching the underside of a leaf for a juicy grub.
As some birds flock together to feed during autumn, others will gather in preparation for their migrating south. The journey will take some birds, such as Swallows and Martins, to southern and equatorial Africa. While others, like the Goldfinch, will head for southern France, Spain and North Africa.
Of course, while some birds will be leaving Britain’s shores, others will return. September and October will see flocks of ‘tseeping’ Redwings and ‘chacking’ Fieldfares checking in. And the numbers of winter thrushes will build up as more and more arrive from Scandinavia to feast on berries in hedgerows and gardens.
If we’re really lucky, they might be joined by the Waxwing. More often found in supermarket carparks than out in the countryside, these beautiful pink and buff Starling-sized birds, with a crest and a black robber’s mask, love the berries found on shrubs and trees that are often planted to brighten up borders. When a flock of Waxwings descends they more than brighten up a scene with their flashes of bright red and yellow on tail and wing as they squabble over bunches of ripe berries.
So keep your eyes peeled for these treasures while you’re out and about this autumn, and make your observations count by submitting them to the British Trust for Ornithology as part of their BirdTrack survey which monitors bird migration. To submit your sightings or see an animated maps of bird migration as it is happening visit www.bto.org and click on ‘BirdTrack’.
Paul Stancliffe is a press officer for the British Trust for Ornithology
